'Diabetes Belt' Tightens Around the South

Much of the South and Appalachia fall into the newly defined "diabetes belt" identified by CDC researchers, a section of country that nearly parallels the so-called stroke belt.

The 644 counties in the diabetes belt have a significantly higher prevalence of the disease than the rest of the country: 11.7% versus 8.5%, according to Lawrence Barker, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues, who reported their findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

That's very similar to the stroke belt, the researchers say, but there are a few differences. For instance, much of West Virginia falls in the diabetes belt but not in the stroke belt. Conversely, Indiana is part of the stroke belt but not the diabetes belt.

The diabetes belt also corresponds, to some extent, with patterns of physical inactivity that CDC researchers reported earlier this month.

In that study, they found that in the majority of counties in the South and Appalachia more than 29% of adults report getting no exercise outside their regular jobs.

The same CDC report also found higher levels of obesity in those regions as well.

Barker and colleagues said that residents of the diabetes belt were also more likely to be non-Hispanic African American.

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